This invention applies to the vending of products in general and in particular to the difficulties that arise when attempting to dispense different sized or shaped items. Additionally, this invention applies to the vending of fragile items that do not fare well when subjected to dropping or impact forces encountered during a vend cycle. While the invention addresses all of these issues, the problems best characterized by the situation are associated with dispensing bottled beverages of various sizes and configurations and packaged in various types of materials such as glass or plastic. Accordingly, the invention will hereinafter be discussed in the context of its applicability to dispensing contained beverages, it being understood that the inventive principles can be expanded to include the dispensing of other products as well.
Machines for vending canned and/or bottled beverages have long been known. Early bottled vending machines enabled release of same-sized bottled beverages, one at a time, following deposit of the required purchase amount, from chest-like coolers. The purchaser was required, for example, to slide the neck of the beverage bottle along and through a retaining race to a dispensing location from which it could be lifted out of the refrigerated chest after release by the dispensing mechanism. With the advent of canned beverages, dispensing became somewhat simpler and easier to automate due to the standardization of container sizes and techniques that enabled the cylindrical cans to roll and drop through chutes during a vend cycle to the delivery area of the machine. Due in part to the rigidity of the cans and their secure seal mechanisms, and the fact that their movement can be fairly well controlled during a dispensing cycle, the canned beverage vending machine has become the standard of today's sealed beverage dispensing systems.
For the most part, the sale of specialty beverages such as fruit or fruit flavored juices, milk, teas and the like and/or beverages that are sealed in glass or plastic bottles, has been conducted by over-the-counter sale techniques and not through automated vending machines. For many of such specialty beverages, packaging in the standard disposable can configuration is not a viable option. For others, the marketing appeal and distinctiveness of a uniquely shaped or stylized container is of major concern. Non-can packaging has now even become popular for the well-known carbonated beverages, that are readily available in many different sized and shaped containers, both plastic and glass, and in various volumes. There is a desire to vend these non-can, specialty beverages via an automated vending machine.
Automated vending has been a problem for most of the non-standard sized and non-canned beverage containers. To date, an automated vending machine that can reliably and safely vend beverage containers of different materials, sizes and shapes from the same vend queue of a machine, without damaging or dropping the container or product within, has not been available.
The present invention is directed to vending machines and the need for a dispensing machine and method for dispensing containers such as beverages packaged in glass, plastic or can containers of varied sizes, shapes and fluid volumes.